An international engineering company has launched a High Court battle against Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation

A health trust is at the centre of a High Court dispute over multi-million pound building work carried out at a hospital.

International engineering firm Laing O’Rourke Construction Ltd has launched a legal battle against Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation over the building of clinical office blocks, known as the Clinical Resource Centre, at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

The trust set up a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) with the company to construct the facility to be used by hundreds of staff.

The arrangement is understood to be that, on completion of the scheme, the trust will pay £20m to the company for the use of the centre over a period of 35 years.

Yet the trust says the building work completed in 2012 has not been done to its specifications. It complained about insufficient daylight in some offices, potential overheating and the toilets that are too small.

For the past two years the office blocks have been empty and the hospital staff have remained in their original office accommodation.

For the work to be signed off, an Independent Tester has to issue a completion certificate, however, this has not been done because of Newcastle Hospital’s concerns.

Laing O’Rourke Construction Ltd launched a High Court bid for a completion certificate to be given and payment for the office blocks to begin. At a High Court hearing in London, it was concluded by Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart that the state of the office blocks should be considered by the Independent Tester.

The tester could agree completion if any of the alleged failures did not have “a materially adverse effect on the enjoyment and use of the building by the trust”, leaving the trust to seek its remedy in damages.

A Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “Regrettably, a building – the Clinical Resource Centre, and what is intended to accommodate circa 860 key professional staff and is a fundamental component the phased re-development of the Royal Victoria Infirmary – does not satisfy basic standards, hence handover in mid 2012 could not happen.

“This is a PFI, therefore, the risks rest with others and not the NHS Foundation Trust. Disappointingly the accountable organisation, Healthcare Support (Newcastle) Limited, have not found it possible to remedy the defects hence the impasse that has been reached.”

It is not the first time this dispute has been before the courts. In August 2012 the trust brought proceedings in the High Court to obtain an injunction preventing the Independent Tester from certifying completion. However, the application failed because the trust felt compelled to discontinue its application.

A Laing O’Rourke spokesperson said: “As this matter is the subject of legal action there is nothing we can say at this point in time.”

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